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ENHANCED VULGARITIES AND/OR DO AMERICANS REALLY TALK LIKE THIS?
In an effort to be as straight forward as possible, I will admit at the beginning of this essay that the George Bush administration made it known to all Americans that enhancement had taken on a more sinister meaning. When the Bushies talked about enhanced interrogation, they were really talking about torture. This essay has…
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DIRECT DEPOSIT?!!
On very rare occasions an incident will happen that demands to be written about. In this case, I am led to believe that if this essay is not written promptly, an indescribable act will be committed on my front porch. The incident in question took place on Friday morning before the start of the Labor…
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DECISIONS
As we march through life, there are thousands of decisions that must be made. A high proportion of them are made by ourselves. At the same time, outside forces make many of the decisions for us. All things considered, I would like to have the decision-making made by myself but I know that is an…
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ON TYING ONE’S SHOES
I have been blind for more than six years and there are certain things that interest and amuse me. One of the facts that is of interest and amusement to me concerns tying my shoes. Sighted people have no trouble in performing this service. But non-sighted people have a bigger problem with tying their shoes.…
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KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN: AN ADVENTURE STORY
During the 1930s and 40s, and perhaps a bit longer, there was a magnificent tenor who appeared in several productions of The Metropolitan Opera as well as in concerts. He also appeared on radio and later on television programs like The Bell Telephone Hour and The Firestone Hour. I was glad to tell people that…
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A THOUGHT OR TWO ABOUT TOM SCANDLYN
Somewhere in this batch of essays, there is one called “Old Age is a Disease.” That was a tribute to Hana Davis’s mother and to Howard Davis’s mother-in-law. As I noted at the end of that essay, I never had the opportunity to meet the author of those lines about old age being a disease. …
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GEORGIA
I am dictating these lines on the afternoon of February 14, which of course is St. Valentine’s Day. The object of this essay is to pay tribute to a lovely woman who has been my friend for perhaps 30 years. This essay has nothing to do with the state of Georgia in this country or…
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ANSWERING THE CALL
If my sources of news are correct, there will be a large meeting in Houston called by the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry. I gather that he has made arrangements to set aside a Saturday in August when he will conduct a national day of prayer. The most important element of the national day of…
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TALL GRASS
When I was a child, my friends Charlie Aldridge and Billy Seyfried liked to play baseball. There were plenty of empty lots which we often converted into ball fields. There was a problem because the weeds and grass had to be cut down before the ball game could start. But the only means of cutting…
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THE GIs
In the summer of 1942, I enlisted in the American Army. When I took the oath to become a soldier, automatically I became a GI. The term GI means Government Issue. The uniforms that we wore, for example, were Government Issue. There was no such thing as buying a fancy uniform to serve. The covers…